读者文摘:底特律的骄傲:约翰·乔治(1)

As John George remembers it, the Detroit neighborhood he grew up in was straight out of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".

正如约翰·乔治所记得的，他在底特律长大的那个社区就好像出自弗兰克·卡普拉的电影《生活多美好》。

"We knew all our neighbors," George, 60, told Detroit's Metro¹ Times.

60岁的乔治告诉底特律的《地铁时报》，“我们认识所有的邻居。”

"On Christmas Eve, we'd all go to midnight Mass, and there'd be 300 people in our house at one o'clock to about five in the morning.

“在圣诞前夜，我们都会去参加子夜弥撒，在凌晨1点到5点，我们家会有300人。

The folks were just really good, hardworking people."

这些人真的很好，工作很努力。”

By the'80s, however, the old neighborhood was more Pottersville than Bedford Falls.

然而，到了80年代，老社区比贝德福德瀑布镇更像波特斯维尔。

Due in part to economic downturns and a nationwide drug epidemic², well-kept homes had been abandoned and kindly³ neighbors had fled to the suburbs.

在一定程度上，由于经济衰退和全国性的毒品泛滥，维护良好的房屋被遗弃，好心的邻居们逃到了郊区。

But not George. "Living in any city, it's like being in a relationship," he told Reader's Digest.

但乔治没有这样做。他在接受《读者文摘》采访时表示：“住在任何城市，都像是在谈恋爱。”

"Some days are better than others. But it was my home.

“有些时光要比其他的时光要好。但是这是我的家乡。

And when I saw it deteriorating⁴, I had two choices: I could leave, or I could stay and fight. I decided⁵ to stay and fight."

当我看到它不断变差的时候，我有两个选择：我可以离开，或者可以留下来战斗。我决定留下来战斗。”

When the abandoned home behind his turned into a crack den⁶, the father of two grabbed some plywood and nails and began boarding up the house.

当他身后那座被遗弃的房子变成一个破屋子时，两个孩子的父亲抓起一些胶合板和钉子，开始用木板搭房子。

After two neighbors stopped to ask what he was doing, they decided to help, with great results.

两个邻居停下来问他在做什么，他们决定帮忙，结果很好。

"When the drug dealers⁷ came back, they turned around and went home," says George. "That's how it all got started."

“当毒贩回来后，他们转身回家，”乔治说。“事情就是这样开始的。”

"It is Detroit Blight⁸ Busters, or DBB, an organization of civic-minded volunteers dedicated⁹ to reviving the city they love,

这是底特律疫病克星组织（DBB），一个由热心公益的志愿者组成的组织，致力于振兴他们热爱的城市，

one abandoned house, one vacant lot, and one garbage-strewn park at a time.

一个废弃的房子，一片空地，一个垃圾遍地的公园。

In the 30 years since that first home rescue, an army of approximately 182,000 volunteers,

在第一次家园救援之后的30年里，一支由大约182,000名志愿者组成的军队，

along with corporate¹⁰ and private donors¹¹, has helped George demolish¹² around 300 derelict homes, mostly in the poorer Northwest area of Detroit.

和企业和个人捐赠者一起，帮助乔治拆除了大约300座被遗弃的房屋，大部分位于底特律较贫穷的西北部地区。

They've also secured 400-some homes by boarding them up, thus keeping bad actors out.

他们还将400多所房屋用木板固定起来，从而将坏人挡在门外。

They've painted and renovated¹³ nearly 900 homes and built over 100 from scratch.

他们粉刷和翻新了近900座房屋，并从零开始建造了100多座房屋。

According to Forbes, more than 1,000 Detroiters have been housed as a result of DBB's work.

根据福布斯的数据，超过1000名底特律人因为DBB的工作而被安置。

1 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

4 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

7 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

8 blight   

n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残

参考例句：

• The apple crop was wiped out by blight.枯萎病使苹果全无收成。
• There is a blight on all his efforts.他的一切努力都遭到挫折。

9 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

10 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

11 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 demolish   

v.拆毁(建筑物等)，推翻(计划、制度等)

参考例句：

• They're going to demolish that old building.他们将拆毁那座旧建筑物。
• He was helping to demolish an underground garage when part of the roof collapsed.他当时正在帮忙拆除一个地下汽车库，屋顶的一部份突然倒塌。

13 renovated   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He renovated his house. 他翻修了房子。
• The house has been renovated three years earlier. 这所房子三年前就已翻新。